NRG and 100 Thieves Both Made the Upper Final. I Called That Part.
NRG beat LOUD 2-1 and 100 Thieves swept LEVIATÁN 2-0 in Friday's upper semis, sending both NA teams to the Stage 2 playoffs upper final exactly as I picked before the bracket started.
I got Thursday's games wrong. I said Friday would tell me if the bigger call held up. It held up.
NRG Needed the Long Way
LOUD opened on Ascent and looked like they'd end the series in twenty minutes, up 3-0 early and still ahead 7-5 at half. NRG flipped it after the swap, closed the map 13-7, and brawk was the reason why. A triple kill off the Odin on an eco round kept NRG's attacking rounds alive, and he finished the match 26/11/8 with a server-high 2.0 rating. LOUD answered on Abyss, 13-11, their only map win of the night. NRG shut the door on Lotus, 13-5. Final series: 2-1, NRG, with LOUD dropping to the lower bracket where FURIA and MIBR are already waiting.
100 Thieves Didn't Need a Third Map
LEVIATÁN got a much worse night. 100 Thieves took Lotus 13-2 and Summit 13-7, and neither map had a moment where LEVIATÁN looked like the better team. That's two playoff sweeps in as many days for the upper bracket's NA half, after LOUD did the same thing to FURIA on Thursday.
Where I Land
I picked NRG and 100 Thieves out of the bye round to meet in the upper final, and here we are. What I haven't earned yet is the other half of that prediction: NRG beating 100 Thieves when it actually happens. Brawk's Ascent looked unbeatable for a half and still needed a full second-half swing to close. I'll take NRG again, but less confidently than I did on Monday.